Harmony Suggests Closing L1, Moving ONE to Ethereum

Harmony is moving toward a full shutdown of its blockchain and a migration of its ONE token to Ethereum, according to a proposal shared by the network. The plan would culminate in a final network snapshot, followed by an airdrop of ERC-20 ONE tokens to the same addresses on Ethereum and steps to transition validator operations.

The announcement arrives after a recent Harmony exploit that involved the minting of unauthorized ONE tokens and raised the prospect of a rollback. With the latest proposal, Harmony’s approach appears to shift from repairing a compromised chain to ending the network as a standalone platform.

Key takeaways

• Harmony’s proposal targets a final block snapshot and issuance of ERC-20 ONE tokens on Ethereum, with holders receiving the new tokens to the same addresses.
• Harmony says the snapshot would include wallets, staking delegations, validator rewards, smart contracts, and centralized exchanges, with “no claims required.”
• The migration is not presented as binding, and the proposal does not specify when the final block would be produced or whether shutdown timing depends on a full on-chain governance vote.
• Users are told to exit smart contracts before Sept. 10 because “multisig safes, liquidity pools and onchain applications cannot be migrated.”
• Validators may choose to stop nodes, remain as governors, or join Harmony’s “AI-video initiative,” with a $1.372 million pool set aside for compensation for validators who exit on time and agree to serve as governors.

A planned end to Harmony’s mainnet—followed by an ERC-20 migration

In its Sunday proposal, Harmony outlined a transition designed to preserve token balances while discontinuing the underlying chain. The network stated it would take a final network snapshot and then issue ERC-20 ONE tokens on Ethereum, allocating the new tokens to the same addresses that held ONE at the time of the final block.

Harmony further described the snapshot scope as broad. It would record ONE balances across wallets, staking delegations, validator rewards, smart contracts, and centralized exchanges. The network also emphasized that holders would not need to take action to receive the new ERC-20 tokens—an important detail for retail participants and custodians alike.

Still, the proposal draws a clear boundary around what can and cannot be migrated. Harmony said multisig safes, liquidity pools, and onchain applications cannot be transferred, warning participants to unwind any smart-contract positions before Sept. 10. That requirement effectively shifts risk management onto users and protocol operators, particularly where liquidity or contract-based funds are involved.

Validator options, governance mechanics, and the open question of timing

Harmony’s transition plan is centered on validator decisions. The network said validators would receive options: stop their nodes, continue operating as governors, or participate in Harmony’s new AI-video initiative.

Harmony also referenced a governance framework consistent with its published network governance rules. According to Harmony’s governance documentation, elected validators can create proposals, while unelected validators may vote with voting power proportional to total stake. Under those rules, a proposal must reach participation threshold first: 51% of total stake weight must participate. Then it requires 66.7% support after a seven-day introduction period and a 14-day voting period.

However, Harmony described the Sunday proposal itself as “non-binding,” and it did not clarify whether the shutdown is guaranteed to follow the full validator-governance voting cycle or how precisely the final block timing would be determined. For investors and market participants, that uncertainty matters: the practical mechanics of when balances become fixed for snapshot purposes—and how orderly exchanges and custodians can coordinate—depend on the final execution plan.

Harmony also mentioned a compensation pool of $1.372 million for validators who shut down on time, keep their stakes, and agree to serve as governors. That figure indicates Harmony expects to retain some validator participation even after the main chain ceases producing blocks, but it does not specify how long governors would remain active in that role.

Recent exploit pressures: from rollback plans to a system-wide exit

The migration proposal comes less than four weeks after an exploit that created forged ONE tokens. Harmony said earlier it was considering a rollback after reports that an attacker had minted nearly 4 billion unauthorized ONE, an amount characterized at the time as roughly 26% of the token supply. Harmony later said it planned to revert the blockchain to an Aug. 11 checkpoint, discarding 109,126 regular transactions and 315 staking transactions.

According to Harmony’s earlier statements, investigators traced nearly all forged tokens to specific wallets or service boundaries and said they were working with exchanges, bridges, and law enforcement. While the rollback narrative focused on restoring the chain by undoing affected transactions, the new proposal effectively reframes the endgame: rather than continuing to operate Harmony’s blockchain and maintain state updates, Harmony is proposing a migration that relocates token ownership onto Ethereum.

For holders, this is a meaningful shift. A rollback aims to correct the ledger while preserving the chain’s continuity; a shutdown-and-migrate approach focuses on stabilizing token ownership by anchoring balances to an Ethereum-issued standard. The trade-off is that the ecosystem built atop Harmony—especially DeFi liquidity and onchain application state—may not survive in the same form because Harmony has said those components cannot be migrated.

What users should do before the September deadline

Harmony’s most urgent operational message is directed at smart-contract participants. By Sept. 10, Harmony urged users to exit all smart contracts, citing the inability to migrate multisig safes, liquidity pools, and onchain applications. That means users relying on staking-related smart-contract interactions, liquidity positions, or complex contract mechanisms may need to ensure they are fully withdrawn before migration-related execution begins.

While Harmony indicated that smart-contract-related ONE balances would be recorded at the final snapshot and ERC-20 tokens would be issued accordingly, the network’s warning suggests token balances alone may not capture the full value of positions that depend on liquidity pools or application-specific states. In other words, the migration can preserve ONE ownership, but it may not preserve the surrounding infrastructure in which ONE is locked or used.

Traders and long-term holders should also watch for how exchanges and custodians handle the ERC-20 distribution process. Harmony said the snapshot would include centralized exchange holdings, but the operational steps—such as whether exchanges require internal mapping from Harmony addresses to Ethereum accounts—are not detailed in the proposal text provided.

With Harmony moving toward an end-of-chain event and a token migration, market participants should track: whether validators ultimately ratify the shutdown through the governance thresholds described by Harmony’s framework, how Harmony confirms the snapshot and final block timing, and how DeFi and other onchain users unwind positions ahead of Sept. 10. The answers will determine how smoothly ONE holders can transition—and how much of the broader Harmony ecosystem can be meaningfully preserved.